It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’
Martin Luther King Jr

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
Martin Luther King Jr

Nonviolence is ultimately a way of life that men live by because of the sheer morality of its claim.
Martin Luther King Jr

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.
Martin Luther King Jr

The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tide of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued that self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.
Martin Luther King Jr

First and foremost, we are American citizens… We are not advocating violence… The only weapon that we have… is the weapon of protest… The great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right.
Martin Luther King Jr

I could never get out of my mind the economic insecurity of many of my playmates and the tragic poverty of those living around me.
Martin Luther King Jr

I would end up having to go to the back of that bus with my body, but every time I got on that bus I left my mind up on the front seat. And I said to myself, ‘One of these days, I’m going to put my body up there where my mind is.’
Martin Luther King Jr

The tough-minded person always examines the facts before he reaches conclusions; in short he post judges. The tender-minded person reaches a conclusion before he has examined the first fact; in short, he prejudges and is prejudiced.
Martin Luther King Jr

One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong.
Martin Luther King Jr

Who are we? We are the descendants of slaves… we are the heirs of a past of rope, fire, and murder. I for one am not ashamed of this past. My shame is for those who became so inhuman that they could inflict this torture upon us.
Martin Luther King Jr

Since the institution of slavery was so important to the economic development of America, it had a profound impact in shaping the social-political-legal structure of the nation. Land and slaves were the chief forms of private property. In the service of this system, human beings were reduced to propertyless property.
Martin Luther King Jr